Kadalamma: The Ocean Beckons

It wasn’t till Vizhinjam that I heard something being spoken about Kadalamma so clearly.

Many houses stood in rows so close, it felt like they were breathing down each other’s back. This was the fisherfolk’s colony. Accepting a fisherman’s wife’s invite to stay the night, we arrived at their house in the colony. Two girls leaning on the doorpost were watching us, three tired travellers in t-shirts and shorts carrying almost everything they possessed on their backs. We were an unusual sight to watch in their close-knit community. After a while of settling down and a round of chai (tea), they called us to enquire about our journey. I asked if they had a desire to enter the ocean. “Kadalamma would get angry,” the younger one said, and added, “she will capsize our boats and kill us.” I pressed on for more information. They then woke up their mother and father, who took turns, one after the other, to answer some of our questions. Joseph and his wife Virgin Mary, begin to recount an incident that had taken place almost a decade ago.

Once a year, the entire community would enter the waters with their women as part of their Christmas celebrations. A few years ago, sometime in the early 2010s, a boat in which most of the women sat, had been washed away. The passengers disappeared. They searched for them for weeks. “She gets jealous of women. Especially the ones who don’t tie their hair up. Their hair resembles the waves of the ocean. Kadalamma does not like that,” Virgin Mary narrates with a certain fear in her eyes. Her daughters don’t know the story too well though. “We don’t go into the water because our parents believe in these stories.” The younger one chimed in, “I’m not too sure of the story, myself. I don’t know if I believe in it!”

Throughout the journey, I saw that the relationship with Kadalamma (the ocean) surpassed their religion. Everybody had their own belief of what their relationship is with her. “We have put our lives in her hands and have come here,” said a few women from Tamil Nadu who had come to Malappuram in the hopes of a better fish catch. The leader of the group informs me that the sea is her mother. She was orphaned when she was little and had brought herself up with her livelihood deeply tied to selling fish.

I walked across lands belonging to various communities and religions. They all believed in her.  At Chambola Harbor, near Thalassery, a few fisherfolk spoke to us about her. “Look at the boats,” said one fisherman, as he pointed to the dockyard, “the biggest on the right are owned by the Muslims, the smaller ones in between the larger ones on the left are also owned by Muslims. The large ones on the left belong to Christians, and those ones over there and there (he pointed to a few spots) belong to Hindus. All of them are mixed up, they are touching each other.” He gazed at the sea. “The sea does not differentiate us according to our religion. We work together, run our businesses together and if need be, we die together.”

Coastal Churches that we came across were often dedicated to Saint George or Saint Anthony. This church was found near Chellanam Harbour and was visited before a trip into the ocean.

Even though belief in the power of Kadalamma was strong throughout the coastline, no one seemed to follow a specific daily ritual as a community or a sect. “Some bathe before they enter her, some bathe after they are back. Some pray before they enter, some pray once they return. Someone always does a Pooja before we leave. Everyone respects that. Some don’t do anything at all. This depends on the wish of the individual. Everyone knows that their life is in Kadalamma’s hands when they enter.”

However, around the district of Allepey and Thiruvananthapuram, I saw many coastal churches and temples that have annual festivals to bless the waters. Most Catholic churches that we observed were dedicated to Saint George in the hope of protection from snakes and other wild beings. Father Varghese of Thaickal Church informs us that once a year, he walks into the water amidst pomp and joy, with his staff. After a long prayer, he places his staff into the water to bless the ocean. Dotting the coastline throughout, from Alleppey to Tamil Nadu, were crosses and shrines near the ocean where the men prayed before entering or the women prayed in wait. Women would sometimes gather under the shade of the shrine to kneel and pray for the men until their return.

Coastal Churches that we came across were often dedicated to Saint George or Saint Anthony. This church was found near Chellanam Harbour and was visited before a trip into the ocean.

Rekha of Chavakkad and her husband have much to say about Kadalamma. As the first and only licenced deep-sea fisherwoman of India, she has faced considerable backlash from the local community for daring to enter the ocean. Everything from being spat upon, to her daughters being harassed on their way home from school. She says that she believes that Kadalamma will watch over her.

To those who have said that Kadalamma does not like women entering her waters, she replies that she is a woman. And as women, they have to stand strong and together.

Rekha, the only licenced deep-sea fishermen whose entrance into the ocean has been blamed for the ocean’s anger manifesting itself in storms and soil erosion of the coastline believes that Kadalamma watches over her through her daily troubles.While she has become somewhat of a legend throughout the rest of the coastline, her own community has rejected her.

It will be easy to brush off the understanding of Kadalamma’s changes over the years as a supernatural one, but the fisherfolk are aware that this is because of growing pollution and wanton destruction of our aquatic environment. Climate change has found its terminology and context as Kadalamma’s anger.

As we exited Vizhinjam and moved towards the Kerala -Tamil Nadu border, a lone woman sat near a large empty cooking vessel, waiting for the day’s pickings. The shores were littered with jellyfish. She stopped me, asking for the time and when I questioned her about the jellyfish, with deep resignation, she says “For the last three days the men have caught nothing but jellyfish and plastic. The few fish they catch isn’t enough for the birds, lest the men. We will starve. This is Kadalamma’s punishment for our destruction (of the ocean). We have polluted her.”